India’s carrom-baller, spin wizard Ashwin bids adieu to international cricket
India's decorated off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin announced his decision to retire from international cricket moments after the Brisbane Test ended in a draw.
Former England batsman Kevin Pietersen said that the debates around whether India should replace Virat Kohli with Ajinkya Rahane as the Test team captain will continue.
Pietersen felt the debates would fly around because India lost their last four Test under Kohli and Rahane, on the other hand, led the team to a famous series win in Australia last month.
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“I absolutely don’t expect things to change, but it is impossible to avoid the continuing debate around the Indian Test match captaincy. Virat Kohli has now lost four consecutive Test matches as skipper, and has Ajinkya Rahane, who just led India to a famous series win in Australia, in his side,” Pietersen wrote in his blog for Betway.
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Under Kohli, India lost two Tests in New Zealand early last year, the first Test against Australia in Adelaide in December and their first Test against England in Chennai this week.
On the other hand, Rahane led the team to a remarkable 2-1 win in Australia after their heavy defeat in Adelaide. He is yet to lose a Test match as India captain.
“On social media, every radio station, every television channel and every news channel, there are very deep discussions around what should happen. Captaining your country is very difficult and unfortunately this is the nature of the beast,” said Pietersen.
“It’s one more distraction that Kohli doesn’t need but he is, of course, capable of leading his side to a victory in the second Test to quieten things down a bit,” he further said.
Meanwhile, England took a 1-0 lead against India on Tuesday in the four-match Test series at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. Chasing a target of 420 runs, India were bowled out for 192 with Root being declared Player of the Match for his double hundred in the first innings.
The emphatic 227-run win over India in the opening match of the ongoing four-Test series has kept England’s hopes alive of making it to the World Test Championship final as they have now reached to the top of the points table.
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